The Ecstatic Journey

by Sophy Burnham

Book Overview

The author recounts her journey to mystical illumination, along with that of ordinary people and saints, seers, and holy men and women, and explores the physical effects of mystical experiences. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345395077
• ISBN13: 9780345395078
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

They say that only another mystic can understand the mystic's view.

_This the third time that I have read this book now. It is an attempt to describe the mystic experience. It is an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Yet the author comes far closer than perhaps any other modern writer. She draws on her own personal mystic experiences to do this. Then she shares the accounts of other mystics throughout history that attempted to communicate the same thing. She sought out these accounts to verify her own experiences- for she knew not what was happening to her. That is the chief value of this book, as reassurance and validation of what has already happened you. I know, I also sought out most of these same sources after my own experiences. If you have had a mystical experience, a taste of samadhi, or of cosmic consciousness in its varying degrees, then you will immediately understand what she is speaking of here. However, if you are consciously trying to have such an experience this is not a "how to" book. It doesn't happen on demand- or on a time schedule. _The author was working in Machu Picchu when her first great experience of illumination hit her. It first hit me working in the Black Hills. As she says, the essence of this is direct experience of the Divine. It is the timeless state that that Plotinus called "the One" and "the Supplier of True Life." It doesn't, it can't, last forever, but having once experienced it you cannot doubt or deny that it did once happen. And it may very well happen to you again. Even in the depths of the Dark Night of the Soul you have unshakeable certainty and trust. Nothing is ever the same again. Nor would you ever want it to be. _If you have an affinity for this work then you might also appreciate the author's, _The Path of Prayer: Reflections on Prayer and True Stories of How it Affects our Lives_.

Gave me peace.

As someone who's been on an extraordinary mystical journey over the past year, Sophy Burnham's book detailing her own experiences, interwoven with those of the great mystics, was a great solace. As she so exquisitely notes, you have to ask yourself, repeatedly, "Am I crazy?" even while you KNOW that you are not.Though I originally checked the book out of the Georgetown Public Library, I am ordering it immediately, so that I can pass it around to famly members who need to understand who I am, and where I am going.And as a writer myself (THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM OF LOVE/NAL trade, Sept., 2003), I was tremendously impressed by the control of her language and the structure of the narrative. I am so grateful. Thank you, Sophy BurnhamJosephine

Feel the joy of those who have opened their hearts.

You are led through the accounts of the moving experiences of some well known Saints, the Budda and Krishna. Interviews with the Dali Lama provide insight. Easy and fascinating reading as the author travels on the mystical path.

One Woman's Spiritual Journey Into Selfhood

Written almost as a diary of her spiritual questioning, Sophy Burnham outlines the various written records of faiths to describe illumination for those who have never felt it. This is an outward teaching to give context for an inner awakening. It gave her the courage to end her marriage in a loving way and find a new way of being. From a wife, a mother and a daughter, she grew to be a successful writer by relying on her spiritual insight, to become an award-winning author of 10 books including two New York Times best sellers -- The Art Crowd and A Book of Angels. This book can inspire hope for those wishing to change their lives. The illumination, the direction, will have to come from within.

Highly useful for mystics ( & others) in the everyday world.

I just finished Sophy Burnham's "The Ecstatic Journey," and highly recommend it. So many people are having mystical experiences now, and those of us who have been having them for a while could really have benefited from Burnham's book back when we began.A practitioner of Vipassana Buddhism herself, Burnham synthesizes nuggets of gold from Buddhism and several other traditions into a highly readable account of how a mystic lives in the "real" world. This book also includes a useful bibliography and list of suggested reading. Perhaps most the valuable parts of this book, though, are the two appendices. One is a handy summation of how to meditate in a Christian context, a process that is not as widely known as in other traditions. The other is a word about how to tell a healthy spiritual organization from a cult, how to know if a teacher is ethical, and what to do if (all too common nowadays) you find out your teacher has feet of clay. Burnham has also included hints throughout on how not to freak out if one day you find yourself face to face with a spiritual visitation and you know you're not crazy.If you are a closet mystic, this is a valuable point of connection. If you've never had the Divine grab you by the front of your shirt and reorder your life via an intense mystical experience but are curious what it can be like and what effects it can have, this is a good book to read. It's lucidly written, and not "weird." A definite thumbs up.